This is the closest I'm likely to get to an official website - the place to announce & discuss all of my current & upcoming projects (comix, magazine articles & columns, fiction & metafiction, & music), & to share my thoughts on the arts, media, music, film, pop culture & politics. I'll publish for the first time online older writings from hard copy magazines & newspapers. I'll also post artwork, videos, or just blog away on whatever occupies my brain.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

So I have returned with more hopelessly convoluted synopses of my Flicker Street Saga. I'm inching towards the main story after these backstories. Prepare for something deeply personal beneath the fantastique....

FLICKER STREET Treatment # 8
– Entangled

This Tangle of Thornes...

As recounted in Treatment #
1: Backstory, three Irish-born siblings were the linchpin of an
organized crime unit in the late 1940s and early 1950s called
Brothers-in-Arms, later known as the Machine. Their enormously
successful organization became the spine of the fledgling Skull
Corporation, when paired with Kong's Black Skull Society.

How three immigrant petty
thieves became the prime movers of arms deals with a postwar
communist country known as Libania boggles the mind. But Kong, as
Bromley Chamberlain, CEO of SkullCorp and also known as Mr. Drang, VP
of 'Special Projects' manipulated them to greatness as it were. He
inspired the Burden ne Brighton brothers to embrace their new
identities as Artemus Calvino, Augustus Breton, and Geoffrey Barton
Thorne. Artemus excelled as a ruthless businessman as well as a
top-notch mercenary. Augustus kept the books and was in charge of
paying the law to look the other way. Geoffrey, fluent in Spanish,
was the go-between to Libania. His heart was never really in it, and
he lost himself in drink and “loose women”.

One thing about the
hardscrabble background of the Thornes was that they were, indeed,
survivors. But the eldest Thorne was even more determined, more
ruthless, in his quest for power. For all it got him, his brethren
ultimately outlived him, though their quality of life was rock bottom
by this time. For some time, the younger siblings felt bullied and
envious of the overbearing and dictatorial Artemus Thorne. Captain
Vargas Llosa was also disgusted with Artemus' never-ending greed, and
his leering after Llosa's wife Carmen. Artemus also fancied the
Llosa's precocious young daughter Marilia. Artemus had his eye fixed
firmly on the barely pubescent girl.

The three disgruntled men
wanted a way out – out of the Machine, Skull, and FOPA forever.
They found an invaluable ally in Dr. Turner Lawton, a somewhat manic
and unstable TSD specialist who had experimented on himself before
his son was born. For all his dangerous traits, Lawton was a true
friend to the three gentlemen, and vowed SkullCorp would fall one
day.

Augustus implored Lawton to
experiment on him with TSD; at first Turner refused, But felt that
maybe with the two of them enhanced they might have a better chance
against SkullCorp. Augustus was injected with TSD in 1956. He felt no
untoward side effects – but when his daughter first opened her
eyes, they briefly flared a deep flaming red. It would be many years
until her eyes burnt so brightly again, but the memory literally
emblazoned on his brain caused him to name her Kendall (i.e.
'kindle').

Augustus and Vargas
concocted a scheme to rob SkullCorp of $4 million and irreplaceable
paperwork, plus, Lawton insisted, a variety of high-tech gadgets.
They would scatter to the four winds, so to speak, change their
names, and live off of their shares of the pilfered Skull loot. With
the papers, they had much dirt on Skull and could resort to blackmail
were they ever found out.

This was not the devastating
blow the mutinous quartet imagined; it was a mere inconvenience to
Kong. However, the man born Kaosong Qua had photographic memory, and
he let events play out over the years to avenge his, and SkullCorp's
honor, and to eliminate the quartet of traitors.

II. The Grand Plan

It was in late 1947 that the
“grand plan” went forward. Libania was in an upheaval after WWII,
and stocks were down at SkullCorp. This was to last only a short time
however. But the “Four Outsiders” (as they called themselves)
struck while the proverbial iron was scorching, and Kong suffered his
first defeat. This is probably what fueled 40 years of hate that
resulted from the Outsiders' actions.

Artemus Thorne suspected
Vargas Llosa right away, but he had no proof. Artemus sought out
Llosa's wife Carmen Francisco, and murdered her. It is worth
reiterating here that Vargas Llosa boasted quite the pedigree: his
grandparents were Alonzo Llosa and Luna Corvo, the latter the
daughter of the legendary gunfighter Sorrow and his wife Carmelita
Rodriquez. Luna's sister Solita was the mother of the colorful
bandit/ guide Felix Tequila, described further in past chapters.
Felix's daughter Esperance had a son, Diaz Montaldo, b. 1956, who we
shall explore in the some depth in the modern portion of our account.

After Artemus' slaying of
Carmen, he lived out a long-brewing fantasy: Thorne wed the 15
year-old Marillia Llosa, daughter of Carmen and Vargas. Thorne lorded
it over the arms deals and drug smuggling based in Libania, to the
pleasure of Kong and Skull's inner circle.The 1950s were increasingly
frenzied for the man calling himself Artemus Calvino Thorne. He had a
suspicion that the traitor Vargas Llosa was “hiding in plain sight”
in Hallmark, MA. He confided this to no one. While on his quest to
find Llosa, now going under the guise of a Cuban Catholic professor
named Emilio Florenza, working at Cullen Darby Communal College
(CDCC), Thorne met the stunning and eccentric Paige Bradcroft. He
immediately used his wealth and power to home in on her. She'd
recently had a brief affair with Evan Eloy Queeq “the first American Indian physicist” they called him (take from that what you
will). But Artemus' vast charisma won her over. Theirs was a
whirlwind wedding, and soon after, in 1956, their son, Calvin Artemus
Thorne, was born.

But Paige soon “relapsed”,
and Queeq impregnated her. Sensing this and furious, Artemus filed
for a quick divorce, and “gave” Paige to his best friend John
Paul Fabricand. Artemus had no real ground to stand on, as he was a
bigamist, being married to young Marillia in Libania. John Paul
claimed the son, Kyle, as his own, a Fabricand, but his deeply
Native-American features belied that. Kyle learned of the mystic arts
from his legal father, though he really detested him. In 1962.
Marillia bore Artemus a daughter, Nanda Marillia Thorne, nicknamed
“Nan”. In his travels, Thorne kept his lives in Libania and
Hallmark eons apart.

III. Quatros Rebeldes

And so what of the other 'Four Outsiders'? With Queeq's help, the man now known as Emilio Florenza kept his cover, teaching at CDCC and raising a good-sized family. He had married Consuela Diamante, and had four daughters: Carmen, twins Carillia and Carmilla, and the youngest Juliana (born 1968), as well as a son Ricardo, or Ricky, born 1977. Before his death, Artemus Thorne held one last investigation in Hallmark and concluded Florenza was indeed Llosa. He mailed his mysterious findings to a then-unknown party. His foolish return to Hallmark led to his ultimate (and, many would say, well-deserved) demise, though.

Dr. Turner Lawton fled to France with his newly-acquired
tech, and soon wed the bohemian Jaresse de Funes. He changed his name
to Danton Lloyd-Langton (after “Llosa-Lawton) and they had a son
Jareth Llloyd-Langton born 1966. Danton became a high school science
teacher, and in 1970 went to Hallmark to help out Emilio. While
there he had an affair with the militant Maya Clancey, a student of Emilio's (and
daughter of Dawn Cheshire and Zachariah Clancey). He returned to France and Trent Clancy
their child was born . Later, Trent went by the name Flint Water. Flint's
brother Jareth was the victim of a nasty divorce in 1982. Lawton took
Jareth to Hallmark and tried to rekindle his romance with Maya. This
rather quickly went south, and Maya did not reveal then that Flint
was Jareth's brother. Despite the risk, Lawton decided to stay in
Hallmark and teach, keeping a low-profile and home schooling his son
for the most part.

Augustus Breton Thorne
retired with his proverbial ill-gotten gains and settled in Arizona.
He took the name David August. He led a simple, quiet life on a farm
with his wife Kim Batten. The two of them did the whole nature thing
– camping, hiking, hydroponics – until their daughter's eyes
flared once then returned to normal. Naming their daughter Kendall
August, the two were happy throughout the 1960s – until Kim died of
cancer in 1973.

The youngest Thorne brother
became Greg Burden once more. He moved to England and wed a Welsh
woman, Ellspeth Gough, in Manchester in 1961. Their daughter Gloria
Erin Burden was born in 1962 in London. When Ellspeth died in 1965,
Greg moved to Montrose IL and wed Miranda Guidrey a biker chick.
Their son Jeremiah Guidrey (name on birth certificate) was born in
1968. The impetuous Miranda was abusive to Greg and abandoned him.
She learned his true name and blackmailed him into letting her split
with Jeremiah while he became a desolate alcoholic and raised Gloria
alone in IL. She renamed her son Jeremiah Thorne and hoped to one day
find Greg's money and secrets. She moved to Hallmark where Skull was
and bided her time. Alas, drugs and prostitution deterred her from
getting far.

Paige Bradcroft Thorne
Fabricand finally took her own life in 1974, after learning E was
alive and that she couldn't be with him. Paige and Kyle were living
in NZ at the time. By 1975, Nocturno had had enough after Paige's
fate. Nocturno (Paige's cousin) destroyed Artemus Thorne. Kyle barely escaped his wrath. Calvin, on the move, took odd jobs and occasionally saw his
half-sister Nan, who he dearly loved. He was approached in 1975 by
Ewen Cromwell, who offered to train him. That same year, in his travels, Cal had assumed the name Brett Thawne and wed a bi-polar junkie called Iris Knarpp (natal name unknown). This disastrous union came to a halt when Cal took up Cromwell's offer. Abandoning his wife and their marriage (which Iris had annulled when she learned "Brett Thawne" never really existed), Cal swore never again to grow intimate with a woman, a vow he upheld for many years. As for Iris Knarpp, she gave birth to Cal's daughter, christened Arletty Thawn, in December of 1975. While his half-brother Kyle became a Skull inner
circle member under the tutelage of Donal Rykards, Calvin Thorne
made his debut as the deadliest mercenary this side of his mentor the
Carnifex, and became known as Exterminans, or the Death Walker. His nom de guerre was derived, oddly enough, from an essay he'd read penned by none other than Anton Gamble, whose work, though a bit left-leaning for Cal, had always fascinated him.

In concluding this installment, we must flash forward and alight once more on the year 1987. 40 years
after Quatros Rebeldos, the four men who betrayed Skull, had scattered, they were at last accounted for. And an inferno was on the horizon....

Welcome to Flicker Street!

Henry CovertAugust 27, 2015

Copyright 2015 George Henry
Smathers Jr.

Special thanx to Thomas S. Davis, whose childhood imagination inspired me to attempt my own original comix stories. Extra special thanx to Bill White, for giving me the key to return to and inhabit Flicker Street.

Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.

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All contents of this blog, except where otherwise noted, are written and created by Henry Covert, and are copyright 2008-2017 by George Henry Smathers Jr. 'Strange Others', 'Strange Others by Henry Covert', and 'Henry Covert.com' were created 2007 by Henry Covert and are copyright 2007-2017 by George Henry Smathers Jr. All images copyright 2017 their respective copyright holders, save as noted otherwise.